Sometimes No Is the Best Answer
by Daktasinsanity
Summary: Eren proposes to Levi but the answer is not what he expected. Levi explains to him why.


**AN: **I was one evening thinking about this kind of concept and now seemed the best time to write it out just for fun.

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**Sometimes No Is the Best Answer**

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"Levi, will you marry me?" Eren asked, his voice a bit shaky as he had been working up his courage to ask this question for weeks now. He was kneeling before the only man he ever had wanted to marry and for the first time in his life he knew that this would last.

"No."

Eren was sure he had heard wrong. "What?"

"I said no, Eren." Levi's voice was steady and serious. He was not kidding.

"But why?" Eren could not understand what Levi was playing at.

"Why should I marry you?" Levi asked with all honesty. He wanted to know Eren's answer.

"Well I thought that it would be time to... I don't know! We've been together for ages and I love you and isn't it what people do when they are sure they want to be with each other for the rest of their lives?"

"Is it?" Levi's tone was not inquiring at all. "Why can't we go on like we have been so far? What will marriage change between us?"

Eren hesitated as he didn't know how to counter that.

"Eren," Levi's voice gained some softness. "I don't see marriage as a solution or as something to strive for. It is not something that our relationship needs."

"But..."

"What?"

"But don't you love me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why are you saying no?"

"Because marriage is just a piece of paper. Essentially it changes nothing. You only make yourself believe it does but it really doesn't."

Eren was silent for a moment. "That is a cold way to look at it."

"Cold? I'm being realistic. I don't see why we should get married. It is a waste of money and time when we both know what we feel for each other."

Eren understood what Levi was saying but it still hurt. He swallowed the bitter feelings down his throat but his throat felt tight.

"Eren," Levi tried again with a gentler tone. "I do not care what other people think and I certainly do not want to prove anything in front of them by signing up a paper that tells them I love you."

Eren stayed silent. He was keeping tears at bay and figuring out what he should say. "Don't you get the feeling that you'd like to tell everyone how much you love me?"

"Eren, you are missing the point."

"Am I?" Eren's tone held a challenge.

"Yes. I do not understand why it isn't enough that I am right here with you?" Why wasn't it enough when he was already living together with Eren? They were happy the way they were. There was no need for superficial changes.

"Why won't you do it for me? Marry me because I want to marry you."

"That is not how it works, Eren. You should stop and think why I am saying no. Do you really want to marry me and spent the rest of your life thinking how I don't like the concept of marriage? How the piece of paper with our signatures on it means nothing to me?"

"How can it mean nothing?!" Angry tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes as Eren exclaimed his words in haste.

Oh boy, he had made Eren mad. "Listen. What I am trying to say is that I do not need the marriage, not the vows, not the cakes, nothing but you. I do not want the society to have any say in what we do. I do not want it to meddle in my business in any way. I want my freedom and I want to be free to love you without having to prove it to anyone. Is marriage the only way to prove to you that I love you? Isn't my word enough? Do I need to sign some paper to make it somehow more real?"

Eren bit his lip as he took calming breaths. He could understand what Levi was after. "No." He slumped to the ground, defeated. "I'm sorry." Eren saw the error he had made.

"Why?"

Eren looked down, looking like a kicked puppy. "I should have asked how you felt."

"Dumbass," Levi scoffed. "I'm sorry too."

Eren raised his glistening eyes towards Levi's. "But why?"

"Because I hurt you." He had seen how close to tears Eren had been. He had seen the struggle of the younger man. "The ring is nice though," Levi ended up saying as his way of trying to make Eren feel better.

"It's waste of money like you said," Eren commented with a sigh passing his lips.

"I wouldn't mind wearing it."

"But you said no."

"Why do I need to marry you to be able to wear a ring?" It was beyond ridiculous that he was told that he could not wear a damn ring on his finger without going through some damn ceremony. No one would even know if they were officially married or not.

Eren was once again speechless. How could one counter that kind of questions?

"It is a compromise I'm willing to make. Take it or leave it," Levi said, intending to sound intimidating but a small smile was fighting its way on his lips. He could not deny that he was feeling happy that Eren had proposed. The dork had had it in him to do something like that. He should have expected it to happen if he was honest with himself. Levi had just made an assumption that he would see through Eren and actually be able to talk to him before the younger man pulled off the proposal stunt.

"It's yours if you want it." Eren presented the ring to Levi once more but this time there was no need for official promises.

"Then I shall take it and wear it as a sign that I am willing to share my life with someone." Levi offered his hand to Eren, waiting for him to put the ring on him.

Finally a small smile appeared on Eren's face. "Fair enough," Eren said as he slipped the small golden band around the ring finger of Levi's. He laid a gentle kiss upon the ring. He may not ever be bound to Levi via legal ways but that wouldn't matter. Eren would accept this small defeat in time since as Levi said, it would not change a thing.


End file.
